Of all the stages, Qing Yi focused on the one with Wen Lu on it. Personally, she never really saw him fighting before and was quite curious about how strong he truly was.
Many other disciples were of the same mind as Qing Yi and most of them focused on stage number 2 where Wen Lu and the boy from earlier would be competing.
As the two moved up on the stage, the boy who was number 99 was filled with fighting spirit as he clenched his hands together and looked straight at Wen Lu with no fear present in his eyes.
"Just surrender, you have no chance of beating me…" Glancing at the boy standing in front of him, Wen Lu didn't even bother with him and just waved his hand dismissingly at him.
"Like hell I'm going to surrender without a fight!" The boy stomped the ground as his eyes lit up with even more fighting spirit than before. The qi inside of him started to churn as the boy got ready to put his all into fighting Wen Lu.
"If you say so… Let's end this quickly!" Saying that, Wen Lu turned back and looked slightly annoyed at the boy insisting on challenging him.
"Stage 2, you may begin fighting when ready!" The elder in charge of the stage 2 said as he looked at the boy challenging Wen Lu with admiration. Having the courage to stand against someone clearly superior to himself and still fight back was an admirable feat and most of the elder's present nodded approvingly at the scene.
Wen Lu did not wait any further and suddenly he moved! His body was like a flash of light, sending a palm strike toward the boy's chest!
Whew!
A clear sound was emitted from Wen Lu's body as he moved. This was the sound produced from the movement technique he used and sounded extremely terrifying to the listeners.
The boy's pupils constricted suddenly. Wen Lu was too fast, and he had covered the distance of dozen meters between them in a blink of an eye to be in front of the boy.
His palm's five finger were like five sharp swords directly piercing towards the boy.
The boy looked like he had no way of escaping, but the extremely calm look on his face told otherwise, as it was like the surrounding suddenly slowed down.
In a split moment, the boy barely managed to dodge to the side and during the moment of confusion he gently pushed Wen Lu. Sending him out of the second stage.
"Haha, looks like I won." The boy smiled brightly as he looked at the speechless Wen Lu.
Wen Lu didn't know what happened, he planned to just finish the boy quickly and get it over with. Never in his wildest dream did he imagine that he would get disqualified! And in such a humiliating way as well!
"You! You cheated!" Not accepting his defeat, Wen Lu screamed briefly as he looked at the elder. Hoping he would side with him.
"Number 99 wins, number 2 disqualified." The elder did not care about Wen Lu's feelings and instead looked at the boy left of the stage approvingly.
Wen Lu had clearly been too confident and forgot about the size of the stage and ended up being disqualified because of it. Hopefully, he would learn to not underestimate his opponent again.
The rest of the crowd was just as surprised at the outcome as Wen Lu. The only exception would be Wang Hu and Xuan Hao, who had long since seen through the boy on the stage.
"Hah, didn't expect such a fellow to hide among the contestants… He is at the eighth stage of the Qi Condensation Realm, yet still chose to hide his cultivation…" Xuan Hao looked at the young boy at stage smiling innocently at the surrounding disciples and elders.
"Haha, indeed! I remember seeing him at the entrance examination, back then he was only at the sixth stage of the Qi Condensation Realm! For him to have reached the eighth stage so quickly and still have stable foundation… Looks like he had a lucky encounter of some sort over the week!" Wang Hu smiled brightly as he looked at the boy who suddenly became the centre of attention.
"Hm? Wang Hu, want to take him in as a disciple?"
"It's too early to tell, I will see how he preforms over the rest of the tournament before deciding on it." Shaking his head, Wang Hu disagreed and decided to take a wait and see approach.
"Natural talent 23…"
Looking at him with the help of the system, Xuan Hao discovered that the boy's talent was way above the current number one genius of the Flying Sword Sect, Ling Song. Still, it was below Qing Yi's and nowhere near the 50 needed to complete the next side quest of the system.
"You! Just you wait, I will have my revenge!" Stomping off while grinding his teeth, Wen Lu threateningly called in the direction of the boy before disappearing from the tournament venue.
"Number two, would you please go over to the rest of the contestants and wait for the first elimination round to finish?" The elder said smilingly as he looked at the boy who just won against the disciple determined to most likely win the newcomer tournament.
"Of course!" Smiling in return to the elder, the boy slowly made his way over to the rest of the contestants, where he was soon surrounded by a group of curious contestants wondering how he managed to beat Wen Lu.
Qing Yi looked at this from a distance and warned herself not to be overconfident. The Flying Sword Sect was filled with hidden dragons and crouching tigers. One misstep in the newcomer tournament could cost her dearly, as she did not know if anyone else decided to hide their true skills.
"Number 26 and 75 go towards stage 5 and get ready to fight!"
Listening to the elder announcing the next round of fights, Qing Yi heard her own number being called out and quickly made her way over to stage 5.
The stage itself was located somewhat away from the centre of the venue and Qing Yi made her way onto the stage as she looked at the other side of the stage and saw her opponent.
A boy around the same age as her, looking relatively confident in himself as he looked at Qing Yi with fighting spirit.
Qing Yi did not say anything as well and instead just got into a fighting position, getting ready to fight at a moment's notice.
The fights at the tournament did not allow any form of weapon be used as even the weakest weapon would be able to easily kill off your opponent when strengthened with qi.
The Flying Sword Sect only allowed disciples who reached the Foundation Establishment Realm to use swords and other weapons when fighting, as they had learned a certain amount of control at that stage and their bodies would be able to take more damage than when they were still at the Qi Condensation Realm.
"Stage 5, you may begin fighting when ready!" With the elders announcement, Qing Yi's first fight in the newcomer tournament officially started.